Facebook brings augmented reality to in-app cameras

Facebook is going to bring augmented reality applications to its users. The first elaboration of this strategy is the Camera Effects Platform, which allows developers to create AR effects for the camera in Facebook’s services.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the first effect of the focus on augmented reality at Facebook’s F8 development event. Initially, the company will start with six companies with the Camera Effects Platform, Recode writes. They make AR applications and effects for the in-app camera of Facebook’s services such as Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.

In the long run, this should involve thousands of applications, according to Zuckerberg. He demonstrated some ar applications in which virtual 3D objects were mixed with the environment. For example, he aimed his camera at a table after which a small plane appeared that flew around a water bottle, planets and stars appeared in the room and he could make human faces smile or frown at will, Buzzfeed describes, which also shows a gif in which 3D- texts appear from the table. Facebook is also working on ar hardware, but it is not known what kind of product it is.

The announcement came the day Snapchat introduced new lenses that allow users to add 3D objects to their images.